Beyonce struggled with tricky earbuds for secret amusement park shoot

Superstar Beyonce had to wear earbuds to film the video for her song Xo at New York’s Coney Island amusement park over the summer (13) in order to keep her new material under wraps. The tune features on the Crazy In Love hitmaker’s new self-titled album, which she surprised fans with on 13 December (13) by releasing it, complete with music videos for each song, exclusively on iTunes.com with no prior announcement or marketing.
Beyonce took over the Brooklyn attraction to shoot the XO promo with top lensman Terry Richardson in late August (13), but instead of blasting out the track during filming, the singer had to deal with tricky earbuds as she rode the rollercoasters to maintain the secrecy of the whole project.
Speaking at a special screening of her visual album in New York on Saturday (21Dec13), she explained, “They (the earbuds) had a lot of static, and you could barely hear and I’m trying to lip sync to the lyrics.
“I could barely hear anything… And people are like, ‘Hey, Beyonce!'”
The new album broke Apple records by shifting 828,773 units worldwide in just 72 hours, but Beyonce admits she had her doubts about such a daring release strategy: “I was terrified. I was so scared. I already envisioned like the worst things that could happen. I was really nervous because this was a huge risk.”
However, she is proud of the album’s early success, especially since it is her first studio release from her own company, Parkwood Entertainment, following her 2011 split from her manager father, Mathew Knowles.
She added, “I felt like I wanted follow in the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire. And (to) show other women when you get to this point in your career, you don’t have to go sign with someone else and share your money and your success, you can do it yourself.”